Trauma has been defined as an interruption of an affiliative or relationship bond. If left unsettled, past grief and psychological trauma can continue to impact our adult relationships and cause us pain in our entire lives. It's possible we may not even realize what is happening to us because usually relationships fail in parts rather than in total. Early childhood losses or traumas can create pain that is relived in adult intimate relationships. Intimacy can provide both an arena for re-enacting old pain and/or healing it. In this fascinating work, noted psychodramatist Tian Dayton shows readers how relationships can be used as a vehicle for healing, personal growth and spiritual transformation. Through fascinating case studies and probing exercises, Dayton helps readers get in touch with the deepest parts of themselves and heal the wounds that plague them.

With this groundbreaking book, discover the critical connections between anxiety and grief—and learn practical strategies for healing, based on the Kübler-Ross stages model. If you're suffering from anxiety but not sure why, or if you're struggling with loss and looking for solace, Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief offers help and answers. As grief expert Claire Bidwell Smith discovered in her own life—and in her practice with her therapy clients—significant loss and unresolved grief are primary underpinnings of anxiety. Using research and real life stories, Smith breaks down the physiology of anxiety, providing a concrete explanation that will help you heal. Starting with the basics questions—“What is anxiety?” and “What is grief?” and moving to concrete approaches such as making amends, taking charge, and retraining your brain, Anxiety takes a big step beyond Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's widely accepted five stages to unpack everything from our age-old fears about mortality to the bare vulnerability a loss can make us feel. With concrete tools and coping strategies for panic attacks, getting a handle on anxious thoughts, and more, Smith bridges these two emotions in a way that is deeply empathetic and profoundly practical.

Presents a practical guide to dealing with grief; and offers personal case studies and advice that help individuals find peace, acceptance, and strength to move on.

Revisioning: Mirror Therapy for Unresolved Grief presents a groundbreaking new technique for the treatment of persistent complex bereavement. This difficult-to-treat phenomenon is characterized by depression, anxiety, and particularly the loss of identity and yearning following death, divorce, or estrangement. The mirror neuron network of the brain becomes broken during prolonged grief. Revisioning, adapted from mirror therapy for phantom limb pain, has been found to repair two of the brain networks involved, while significantly reducing prolonged grief. This book includes case studies, research on the effectiveness of Revisioning, and brain mechanisms involved in grief and its treatment with Revisioning.

Grief is a natural reaction to the loss of a treasured person. In time, the loss is usually assimilated, but, for some, the mourning process becomes disrupted or stuck. Grief remains long-lasting and unresolved, and the death as painful as if it had happened yesterday. This book looks at how to cope with this kind of reaction to bereavement, so that it becomes possible to accept the death and master its impact. Topics include: The difference between 'normal' and 'complicated' grief; Links with other conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression; Understanding the impact of grief; How to manage related emotions such as anger and guilt; Identifying unhelpful thinking; Using memories and visual imagery positively; Moving your loved one from your mind to your heart; How to create a lasting memorial

The loss of a loved one is one of the most painful experiences that most of us will ever have to face in our lives. This book recognises that there is no single solution to the problems of bereavement but that an understanding of grief can help the bereaved to realise that they are not alone in their experience. Long recognised as the most authoritative work of its kind, this new edition has been revised and extended to take into account recent research findings on both sides of the Atlantic. Parkes and Prigerson include additional information about the different circumstances of bereavement including traumatic losses, disasters, and complicated grief, as well as providing details on how social, religious, and cultural influences determine how we grieve. Bereavement provides guidance on preparing for the loss of a loved one, and coping after they have gone. It also discusses how to identify the minority in whom bereavement may lead to impairment of physical and/or mental health and how to ensure they get the help they need. This classic text will continue to be of value to the bereaved themselves, as well as the professionals and friends who seek to help and understand them.

BOOK TITLE DESCRIPTION: Grief Entanglements: Understanding Unresolved Grief and What You Can Do About It will benefit anyone who wishes to understand, or avoid becoming involved in, an entangled grief experience. It is for the grieving person who experiences one or more of the following: -Reoccurring or tormented reminders of the loss, -Unresolved feelings and emotions, -Continual or obsessive, sad or dark, thoughts regarding loss, -Feelings of being lost and without purpose, -Seeming inability to let go of the grief. This original work introduces a simple, yet extremely effective perspective on processing unresolved grief. What is a Grief Entanglement? In listening to hundreds of grief stories over a period of more than twenty-five years, Professional Counselor, Sharon Greenlee, identifies six sets of story patterns that emerge repeatedly. These patterns involve circumstances or issues that may cause the grieving person to become stuck in the grief process. When the bereaved continues to relive one or more of these story patterns over a prolonged period of time, it becomes, what the author refers to, as a grief entanglement. Real-life stories explain the six grief patterns. Ways to move from entangled grief, to a healthy and peaceful resolve, is the theme of this work.

Focuses specifically on complicated mourning, often referred to as pathological, unresolved, or abnormal grief. It provides caregivers with practical therapeutic strategies and specific interventions that are necessary when traditional grief counseling is insufficient. The goal is to turn "complicated" into "uncomplicated" mourning.

Provides a variety of case examples applying theory to practice when working with those dealing with grief and loss. Grief and Loss: Theories and Skills for the Helping Professions, 2/e, allows readers to see how essential theories and skills will enhance their own practice. They will gain the core knowledge and skills needed to work with individuals, families, groups, and communities who are experiencing loss and the grief that accompanies it Culture, spirituality, age, gender and other factors that influence grief reactions are discussed, helping readers understand and work with diverse populations. Individual and programmatic responses to grieving people are also included. Each chapter contains exercises that encourage readers to apply the concepts learned and MySocialWorkLab includes a variety of Internet resources and supplemental learning tools. Learning Goals Upon completing this book, readers should be able to: Acquire core knowledge and skills that will prepare readers to work with individuals, families, groups, and communities who are experiencing loss and the grief that accompanies it Understand normal and complicated grief reactions Identify actual as well as symbolic losses Recognize the factors the positively and negatively influence grief reactions Understand the resources and interventions that are effective in helping those who are grieving Note: MySocialWorkLab does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MySocialWorkLab, please visit: www.mysocialworklab.com or you can purchase a valuepack of the text + MySocialWorkLab (at no additional cost). VP: 0205206816

When a loved one dies we mourn our loss. We take comfort in the rituals that mark the passing, and we turn to those around us for support. But what happens when there is no closure, when a family member or a friend who may be still alive is lost to us nonetheless? How, for example, does the mother whose soldier son is missing in action, or the family of an Alzheimer's patient who is suffering from severe dementia, deal with the uncertainty surrounding this kind of loss? In this sensitive and lucid account, Pauline Boss explains that, all too often, those confronted with such ambiguous loss fluctuate between hope and hopelessness. Suffered too long, these emotions can deaden feeling and make it impossible for people to move on with their lives. Yet the central message of this book is that they can move on. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain and help families come to terms with their grief. Her work features the heartening narratives of those who cope with ambiguous loss and manage to leave their sadness behind, including those who have lost family members to divorce, immigration, adoption, chronic mental illness, and brain injury. With its message of hope, this eloquent book offers guidance and understanding to those struggling to regain their lives. Table of Contents: 1. Frozen Grief 2. Leaving without Goodbye 3. Goodbye without Leaving 4. Mixed Emotions 5. Ups and Downs 6. The Family Gamble 7. The Turning Point 8. Making Sense out of Ambiguity 9. The Benefit of a Doubt Notes Acknowledgments Reviews of this book: You will find yourself thinking about the issues discussed in this book long after you put it down and perhaps wishing you had extra copies for friends and family members who might benefit from knowing that their sorrows are not unique...This book's value lies in its giving a name to a force many of us will confront--sadly, more than once--and providing personal stories based on 20 years of interviews and research. --Pamela Gerhardt, Washington Post Reviews of this book: A compassionate exploration of the effects of ambiguous loss and how those experiencing it handle this most devastating of losses ... Boss's approach is to encourage families to talk together, to reach a consensus about how to mourn that which has been lost and how to celebrate that which remains. Her simple stories of families doing just that contain lessons for all. Insightful, practical, and refreshingly free of psychobabble. --Kirkus Review Reviews of this book: Engagingly written and richly rewarding, this title presents what Boss has learned from many years of treating individuals and families suffering from uncertain or incomplete loss...The obvious depth of the author's understanding of sufferers of ambiguous loss and the facility with which she communicates that understanding make this a book to be recommended. --R. R. Cornellius, Choice Reviews of this book: Written for a wide readership, the concepts of ambiguous loss take immediate form through the many provocative examples and stories Boss includes, All readers will find stories with which they will relate...Sensitive, grounded and practical, this book should, in my estimation, be required reading for family practitioners. --Ted Bowman, Family Forum Reviews of this book: Dr. Boss describes [the] all-too-common phenomenon [of unresolved grief] as resulting from either of two circumstances: when the lost person is still physically present but emotionally absent or when the lost person is physically absent but still emotionally present. In addition to senility, physical presence but psychological absence may result, for example, when a person is suffering from a serious mental disorder like schizophrenia or depression or debilitating neurological damage from an accident or severe stroke, when a person abuses drugs or alcohol, when a child is autistic or when a spouse is a workaholic who is not really 'there' even when he or she is at home...Cases of physical absence with continuing psychological presence typically occur when a soldier is missing in action, when a child disappears and is not found, when a former lover or spouse is still very much missed, when a child 'loses' a parent to divorce or when people are separated from their loved ones by immigration...Professionals familiar with Dr. Boss's work emphasised that people suffering from ambiguous loss were not mentally ill, but were just stuck and needed help getting past the barrier or unresolved grief so that they could get on with their lives. --Asian Age Combining her talents as a compassionate family therapist and a creative researcher, Pauline Boss eloquently shows the many and complex ways that people can cope with the inevitable losses in contemporary family life. A wise book, and certain to become a classic. --Constance R. Ahrons, author of The Good Divorce A powerful and healing book. Families experiencing ambiguous loss will find strategies for seeing what aspects of their loved ones remain, and for understanding and grieving what they have lost. Pauline Boss offers us both insight and clarity. --Kathy Weingarten, Ph.D, The Family Institute of Cambridge, Harvard Medical School